What is Ethereum and How Does it Work?

If you’re wondering what is Ethereum, what happened during theETH hard fork of 2016,how Ethereum works or what is Ethereum classic you’re reading the right article.

What is Ethereum?

Before going any further ask yourself, what is Ethereum? what do you know about it and its creation?

Ethereum is an open source, blockchain based distributed ledger technology as well as a cryptocurrency powering said blockchain. The Ethereum blockchain is a tamper-proof, permanent, and decentralized list of records that is fueled by the native cryptocurrency called Ethereum, Ether, or ETH. It allows developers to build and operate decentralized applications on the blockchain using ETH as gas. Gas is used as transaction fees and is an incentive given to miners.

Ethereum is Bitcoin’s main competitor and has historically been the second cryptocurrency in market cap and one of the most traded cryptocurrency of all times.

How Ethereum Works?

Now that we have covered the basis ofwhat is Ethereum you should ask yourself how Ethereum works? What was it meant to do?

Ethereum uses the same blockchain technology as Bitcoin does but utilizes it in different ways. Ethereum focuses a lot more on its blockchain technology to foster innovation and change than it does on its native cryptocurrency as this one was mostly intended to fuel the network rather than solely be a store of value and means of exchange.

Ethereum is faster and more efficient than Bitcoin, it also optimized smart contracts to make them an integral part of its network and allow developed to set up Decentralized Autonomous Organizations or Decentralized Apps. Smart contracts are independent and automated computer program that execute specific tasks automatically once certain conditions are met.

Due to their blockchain implementation, smart contract act independently and cannot be tampered with, controlled, or turned off, or censored. This makes Ethereum ideal for developers as while most blockchains can process process code, most were not made with that particular aspect in mind and, thus, are not very efficient at it.

The Ethereum Hard Fork of 2016

The Ethereum hard fork for January 2019 have revived and rekindled some of the arguments that came from the biggest controversy the blockchain ever had; the Ethereum hard fork of 2016.

At that time, a start up aptly named DAO was building a Decentralized Autonomous Organization and raised $150 million through a token sale. A dew days after the capital was raised the company was hacked and had about $50 million worth of Ether stolen. While the fault came from the company and not the blockchain, the main Ethereum developers had to step into the mess and try to fix it.

Many members of the community came together to discuss the issue and several propositions were put forward but in the end a hard-fork of the blockchain to before the funds were stolen was accepted by the majority of the community. The move was very controversial as this meant that the blockchain could be tampered with as long as enough force was behind the move but the main actors felt that it was necessary to restore confidence in Ethereum.

What is Ethereum Classic?

Following theEthereum hard fork of 2016 a new cryptocurrency was born, but exactly what is Ethereum classic?

Ethereum classic is the new cryptocurrency used from a split in the Ethereum blockchain which is a result of the hard fork of 2016 as part of the community refused to tamper with the blockchain to retrieve the investment funds. They saw the hard fork as something going against the core ides of decentralization and a dangerous precedent as this meant that the move could be repeated if enough money, people, or media surrounded a particular issue.

Ethereum classic thus is the continuation of the original blockchain, free of any tampering, and is used by the members of the Ethereum community that are the most fervent about the decentralization aspect of what the blockchain technology stands for. But as most of the Ethereum community and developers were behind the hard fork, Ethereum classic sees far less popularity and has a much lower price than its big brother Ethereum.

This concludes today’s article about Ethereum, what is it, how it works and of course its biggest controversy to date the hard fork of 2016. We hope you learned a lot, enjoyed the read, and stay tuned for more great content.